Switzerland’s supreme court lifted the lid on the ongoing allegations of corruption at world football’s governing body Fifa by removing a gagging order on the names of people suspected of receiving kickbacks.
The Federal Court on Wednesday found in favour of five media outlets who had petitioned for the release of documents that had been withheld from public gaze since 2010 when a Zug court ordered their suppression following a financial settlement of a corruption case.
The BBC, one of the petitioners, subsequently revealed in tweets posted on its site that the former Fifa president, Joao Havelange was one of those who had been paid “millions of pounds”. The other person involved was Havelange’s former son-in-law, Ricardo Teixeira, who earlier this year resigned as head of Brazil’s football federation and the 2014 World Cup organizing committee, and gave up his FIFA executive committee seat.
The names were not a surprise: the involvement of the two had already been widely rumoured.
The 2010 Zug court case had examined allegations that Fifa officials had taken unethical payments from the now defunct sports marketing firm ISMM-ISL.
The Zurich-based Fifa has been dogged by corruption allegations for several years, particularly during the tenure of its President Sepp Blatter. The Swiss national has never been directly implicated in the corruption rumours – nor charged with any misdeeds – but several media outlets have accused him of at least turning a blind eye.
A statement on the Fifa website said it was “pleased that the ISL non-prosecution order can now be made public.”
It described the decision as “in line with what Fifa and the Fifa president have been advocating since 2011”, as part of the reform process launched at the Fifa congress in June 2011.
“The decision of the Swiss Federal Court also confirms that only two foreign officials will be named as part of the process and that … the Fifa president is not involved in the case,” it noted.
Objections overruled
Fifa vowed to clean up its act last year after the uproar surrounding the award of the World Cup finals to Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022. Ongoing allegations of kickbacks have resulted in the suspension or expulsion of some high ranking officials.
Swiss criminologist Mark Pieth delivered a damning report in December into the way the organisation is run. Pieth recommended more transparency, an overhaul of financial governance and the appointment of independent external executives at the body.
Late last year, Blatter – who won a fourth term as president in 2011 – had stated that Fifa would release the Zug court papers relating to the ISMM-ISL court case. But the release was shelved as Fifa said it had received legal objections from unnamed individuals.
The Federal Court brushed aside these objections, ruling that it was in the public interest for the Zug trial papers to be released to the media.
“The names of the persons concerned, and financial and personal circumstances taken into account by the authorities, must equally be divulged to reporters,” the court said in a statement.
Football’s world governing body has been dogged by allegations of corruption for many years.
Fifa set up an ethics committee in 2006 to look into media allegations of corruption surrounding the sport.
In 2008 a judicial case in Zug implicated unnamed Fifa officials in a multi-million dollar kickback scandal involving bankrupt sport marketing firm ISMM-ISL. The identities of the officials was withheld following a financial settlement of the case.
Last year, the heads of the Nigerian and Oceanic football confederations were suspended along with other Fifa officials following claims of bribery during the vote to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar.
Sepp Blatter was re-elected for a fourth term as Fifa president in June 2011. His rival Mohamed bin Hammam was later banned for life after being found guilty of bribery. Jack Warner, a Fifa vice-president who also faced allegations of corruption, resigned.
In October 2011, Fifa announced the formation of four task forces to look at the revision of statutes, ethics, transparency and compliance and the running of the next World Cup in 2014.
In December, Mark Pieth, chairman of Fifa’s Independant Governance Committee, recommended measures to clean up Fifa.
Although Pieth’s report only covered the future management of Fifa, Blatter promised in march of this year to empower the organisation’s ethics committee to look into all “credible” allegations of past corruption.